Dendritic thickness: a morphometric parameter to classify mouse retinal ganglion cells
Braz. j. med. biol. res
; 40(10): 1367-1382, Oct. 2007. ilus, tab, graf
Article
in English
| LILACS
| ID: lil-461356
Responsible library:
BR1.1
ABSTRACT
To study the dendritic morphology of retinal ganglion cells in wild-type mice we intracellularly injected these cells with Lucifer yellow in an in vitro preparation of the retina. Subsequently, quantified values of dendritic thickness, number of branching points and level of stratification of 73 Lucifer yellow-filled ganglion cells were analyzed by statistical methods, resulting in a classification into 9 groups. The variables dendritic thickness, number of branching points per cell and level of stratification were independent of each other. Number of branching points and level of stratification were independent of eccentricity, whereas dendritic thickness was positively dependent (r = 0.37) on it. The frequency distribution of dendritic thickness tended to be multimodal, indicating the presence of at least two cell populations composed of neurons with dendritic diameters either smaller or larger than 1.8 æm ("thin" or "thick" dendrites, respectively). Three cells (4.5 percent) were bistratified, having thick dendrites, and the others (95.5 percent) were monostratified. Using k-means cluster analysis, monostratified cells with either thin or thick dendrites were further subdivided according to level of stratification and number of branching points cells with thin dendrites were divided into 2 groups with outer stratification (0-40 percent) and 2 groups with inner (50-100 percent) stratification, whereas cells with thick dendrites were divided into one group with outer and 3 groups with inner stratification. We postulate, that one group of cells with thin dendrites resembles cat ß-cells, whereas one group of cells with thick dendrites includes cells that resemble cat a-cells.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
LILACS
Main subject:
Retinal Ganglion Cells
/
Dendrites
Limits:
Animals
Language:
English
Journal:
Braz. j. med. biol. res
Journal subject:
Biology
/
Medicine
Year:
2007
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Brazil
/
Germany
Institution/Affiliation country:
Anatomisches Institut/DE
/
Universidade Federal do Pará/BR
/
University of Tübingen Eye Hospital/DE
/
University of Tübingen/DE